Fiction > Book editions > New York, 1885 - Dynamiter

l6 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES.
dens in the midst. Here was quite a stir of
birds ; even at tliat lioiir, tlie shadow of tlie
leaves was grateful ; instead of the burned at-
mosphere of cities, there was something brisk
and rural in the air ; and Challoner paced for-
ward, his eyes uxjon the pavement and his mind
running upon distant scenes, till he was re-
called, upon a sudden, by a wall that blocked
his further progress. This street, whose name
I have forgotten, is no thoroughfare.
He was not the first who had wandered there
that morning ; for as he raised his eyes with an
agreeable deliberation, they alighted on the
figure of a girl, in whom he was struck to
recognize the third of the incongruous fugitives.
She had run there, seemingly, blindfold ; the
wall had checked her career, and being entii'ely
wearied, she had sunk upon the ground beside
the garden railings, soiling her dress among the
summer dust. Each saw the other in the same
instant of time ; and she, with one wild look,
sprang to her feet and began to hurry from the
scene.
Challoner was doubly startled to meet once
more the heroine of his adventure and to ob-
serve the fear with which she shunned him.
Pity and alarm, in nearly equal forces, con-
tested the possession of his mind, and yet, in
spite of both, he saw himself condemned to
follow in the lady's wake. He did so gingerly,